Horticulture Week are wonderful supporters of everything we do and it was an absolute pleasure for our Founder & Chair of Trustees, Dr Olivia Chapple, to appear on the latest edition of the site’s brilliant podcast!
To listen to the episode, please click here
Entitled ‘Harnessing the Therapeutic Potential of Gardens,’ Olivia chatted all about the charity to editor Matthew Appleby, who asked many thoughtful questions making for a brilliantly engaging episode.
Telling the story of the charity, Olivia spoke a little about how the organisation has become a national entity over the course of the past decade, becoming the ever-growing and vibrant legacy of her eldest son, Horatio Chapple.
She also explained more about how the charity’s gardens are run, with each being a testament to the hard work and dedication of all our Head Gardeners and their incredible teams of volunteers. Moreover, she shared that the pandemic has not only reinforced the importance of the work of Horatio’s Garden, but that it’s crucially led millions of people across the country to realising just how vital nature and the great outdoors are to everyone’s wellbeing.
For those facing extraordinarily difficult times in NHS spinal injury centres, the positive impact of Horatio’s Garden has now become more apparent than ever. Our five open gardens in Salisbury, Glasgow, Stoke Mandeville, Oswestry and London are now a lifeline to thousands of patients and their loved ones, something Olivia talks more about in the podcast.
Additionally, she also discusses progress at the site of our sixth garden in Cardiff, the development of designs for our seventh garden in Northern Ireland and exclusively revealed who will be bringing our eighth stunning sanctuary to life – you’ll have to listen to find out more!
To listen to the episode, please click here
Together Olivia and Matthew cover the upcoming Society of Garden Designers Awards too, where our Stoke Mandeville haven, designed by Joe Swift, has been shortlisted as a Main Categories Finalist! Hosting a vegan table in honour of fellow Horatio’s Garden South West designer, Cleve West, who also won three SGD Awards for our first horticultural haven back in 2015, Olivia discusses how everyone attending is very much looking forward to the evening.
As the podcast came to a close, there was just time to mention the charity’s upcoming BBC Lifeline Appeal, with Olivia emphasising that this is an incredible opportunity to not only raise awareness of what we do, but a chance for everyone to help improve the lives of people affected by spinal cord injury. Presented by Alan Titchmarsh, the appeal will be broadcast on BBC One this Sunday 26th September at 14:05pm, whilst it will also be available on iPlayer for one month.
To watch and support our BBC Lifeline Appeal, please click here
We’re so grateful to Matthew and the Horticulture Week team for featuring Olivia and hope that it won’t be long before we’re back speaking to them and all their lovely listeners!
